


Waiting an Age

by anaraine



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-12 04:58:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5653276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anaraine/pseuds/anaraine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even after death, his fierce King has never forgotten.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting an Age

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shadowcat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/gifts).



There is a soft flutter in the cavity of his chest, a sensation more gentle than a heartbeat — but it strikes him with all the force of cannon fire. The ocean roils beneath him, and he is forced to brace himself against the gunwhale to keep his balance, closing his eyes and breathing slowly. His heart flutters again, faint but _there_ and his lips curve into a disbelieving smile.

It feels like he has waited an age for this.

Their story has passed into legend, distorted by the sands of time. He laughs sometimes, hearing about the King of the Oceans, who married the Priestess of the Seas. How the Priestess was bound in service to ferry the dead of those lost at sea, and the only freedom she had was in the gift of her own heart.

They are right in one aspect: Will was free to give his heart to Elizabeth to love and protect. She did so until she grew old and died, taking it with her into worlds beyond his reach, leaving him doomed to sail the seas for all eternity.

But. His Elizabeth. Bright and bold and eternally faithful - she came back. She sailed into his life again a mere twenty years later, a young woman heeding the call of the ocean and following the the beat of a heart not her own. He can still recall the way she looked at him, alive and laughing as he pressed his hand against her breast and felt his missing heartbeat alongside hers.

Even after death, his fierce King has never forgotten. She has died and returned and died again. The shortest they have been parted after her death was eighteen years - the longest was thirty. He does not know what it costs her to come back, and he has not yet found the courage to ask her.

"Captain! There's a ship off the starboard bow!"

He both is and isn't surprised; he can feel the ghostly echo of his heartbeat, growing stronger as the distance between them shortens. But there is always a lingering fear that _this_ time will be the last, and a sweet, disbelieving joy when she appears on the horizon, hair in the wind and forever a King of the oceans beneath their feet.

(What else can he do but cherish every moment they have, and wait, trusting she will find him again?)


End file.
